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| Elevation: | 3,700 ft |
| GPS: | 34.665, -116.978 Google Map · Climbing Area Map |
| Page Views: | 369,338 total · 2,485/month |
| Shared By: | Francis Baker (fran) on Sep 26, 2006 |
| Admins: | C Miller, M. Morley, Adam Stackhouse, Salamanizer suchoski, Justin ., Vicki Schwantes |
Description
New Jack City (NJC), also known as Sawtooth Canyon, is a sport climbing destination near Barstow, CA. With more than 450 sport climbs ranging from 5.6 - 5.13 scattered across the high desert, New Jack City offers something for climbers of all abilities. The rock is an unusual form of metamorphic rock of volcanic origin, offering often tricky and thought-provoking sequences and moves on huecos, pockets, edges, jugs, underclings, and crimps. The climbing is typically steep and diverse, requiring both strength and technique. Located in the high desert the climbing season runs from October through May.
Getting There
Heading south from Barstow on Hwy 247 (Barstow Rd.), turn right on the dirt road at mile marker 63.0. Follow this road for 0.9 miles, where the road forks at a BLM kiosk. Bear left at the kiosk, and follow the road more-or-less straight ahead for 0.6 miles until the road dead ends at the main parking area. The maintained trail from this parking area that crosses the fence leads directly to Raven Rock
Camping
Campsites at New Jack City are first-come first-served and there is no fee to camp. Each campsite has a picnic table and fire ring and outhouses are not too far away. No water is available so come prepared - this is the desert.
BLM Sawtooth Mountains Wilderness
BLM Sawtooth Mountains Wilderness
Classic Climbing Routes at New Jack City
Mountain Project's determination of the classic, most popular, highest rated climbing routes in this area.
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Photos
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More About New Jack City
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Guidebooks (2)
Joshua Tree
Joshua Tree
Easily seen from 247 off to the west with black rocks littering the hillside. Much better than expected with interesting rock.
~Susan Dec 16, 2006
CA
Huntington Beach, Ca
A few months back I was out at NJC and ran into a BLM employee named John Kavanaugh. He approached me and asked me how I felt about NJC usage and the possibility of further development as a recreation area. I received an email from him a few days ago with this link
It outlines a proposal for development of a camping area and asks for written input, due at the Barstow BLM office no later than 5/16/2010.
My take--I started climbing at New Jack City in 2004 and have been dismayed at the increasing abuse that it takes--trash, broken glass, spent ammunition, numerous trash-filled fire rings and unnecessary social and OHV trails. I no longer camp there, not only because of the declining aesthetics, but also due to late-night noise from generators, stereos, OHV engines, etc. To me, the most intriguing part of this proposal is the possibility of a campground host site. A campground host could help regulate the "asinine human behaviors" that seem to be on the rise at NJC.
Whether you agree with my sentiments or not, please follow the link, draft some comments and send them to the BLM.
Sincerely,
Tom Forquer Apr 22, 2010
I started climbing out at NJC in 95-96, and it's WAY better out there than it used to be. The gunfire and broken glass is way down from the old levels. If you first got there in 2004, you have no idea. Jack tells me it was worse before then. Burning cars.
Now every time I go out there, I'm surprised how much better it's gotten, from less graffiti, to entire weekends where I don't hear a gunshot. The routes have cleaned up a good deal also :)
Of course, it's BLM land, and with the freedom to put up new routes pretty much at will and camp wherever you feel like comes the fact that paintball, OHV, generators, stereos, and gunfire are all pretty much par for the course. I'm just happy when the shooters aren't breaking glass and don't aim in my direction. I haven't been menaced by armed idiots at 2 AM in ten years or so. Heck, I haven't even heard the midnight ATV run in a couple of years. So, like I said, way better.
To give full credit, a lot of the improvement is due to the BLM fencing off some areas and closing others (no more high pointing the gas pipeline road). It seems that the climbers have been around long enough that even the most hard-headed shooters have generally gotten the idea that weekends are not the best time to shoot out there (a lot of the shooting is on the compounds on the other side of the ridge, so nothing the BLM does is going to have any effect on that). FWIW, hunting and off-roading are approved and historic uses there, so we don't have room to complain, not if we don't want our approved and historic use subject to the same restrictions. I don't need another climbing area closed.
My two cents (and unbiased information in a coming post, this is just IMO): I'm happy with it the way it is. The BLM has done a great job with a light hand so far; NJC has improved worlds and the trend is good. I don't need a campground host to look out for me, or to go complain to. I want to camp in my favorite spots. I don't want to pay. I like being able to put up routes with only my common sense to guide me. I'm happy to maintain the area on my own. I spent a couple of hours clipping wait-a-minute bushes back from the road and picking up trash last weekend, and we tuned up the benches a couple weeks before that. I like not seeing too much evidence of other humans, especially on Sunday evenings when the wind has blown everyone else out. I don't think that a campground host is going to cut down on the generators and stereos, esp. since the host is going to be a fair distance from the regular campsites, and it's legal. I wouldn't mind if people would stop burning the darn pallets so I'd stop getting flats, but I doubt that a campground host is going to stop that. As at most places, if you're willing to hike 10 minutes, or drive an extra bit, you can have all the quiet you can stand, night or day. Not that I want to encourage anyone else to climb anywhere but Raven Rocks and camp anywhere but Boy Scout Wall. Ski Vail, as they say. :)
I don't want it to turn into Josh, I want it to stay like Josh before it became a national park. May 3, 2010
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announces its intent to write an environmental assessment to consider improvements of the camping area in the Sawtooth Limited Use area of Stoddard Valley about eight miles south of Barstow. This proposed project would enhance the existing recreation opportunities for rock climbers and remote campers with the addition of 12 camp sites, one new restroom, a new kiosk, a picnic area and a host site. Each camp site would have a shade ramada, picnic table, fire pit and grill, and a barbeque.
Community members and interested parties are invited to participate in the environmental assessment by providing written comments by the close of business May 16, 2010. Only written comments will be accepted regarding the proposed camping-area improvements. Please submit your comments to the BLM Barstow Field Office, Attn: Sawtooth, John Kavanaugh, 2601 Barstow Road, Barstow CA 92311, or by email to John_Kavanaugh@ca.blm.gov. For further information about the project, please contact John Kavanaugh at (760) 252-6037.
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I spoke to John Kavanaugh today and asked him some questions about the proposed camping improvements at Sawtooth Canyon, AKA New Jack City. I want to thank John for calling me back and taking the time to answer my questions.
Here's what I found out about the proposed improvements.
Four campsites will be near Boy Scout wall, just north of the concrete pad. There will also be a vault toilet and kiosk here. There will be a shade pavilion by the parking area underneath the Crossfire Crag. There will be three campsites on the other side of the canyon from Boy Scout Wall, closer to the existing kiosk. These campsites will be walk-in, in the sense that they'll be 50 feet from the parking area and will have a post and cable fence delimiting the parking area.
Five campsites will be by the White Face Wall, near the existing vault toilet.
The host site will be to the northeast of the White Face, on the other side of the main road into the climbing area, and south of the existing kiosk.
The idea is to encourage campers to congregate in these areas.
An environmental assessment has not yet been filed; the BLM is waiting for the result of the scoping process to start that. Visual impact has been considered, not least because films are often shot there and the BLM doesn't want to affect that.
The BLM is not proposing any changes to the current situation regarding climbing, OHV use, shooting, hunting, and other uses of the area.
The BLM doesn't know yet if these sites will be pay sites, but there are no proposals currently to restrict camping elsewhere in the area.
Hopefully the BLM will work with climbers so that none of the campsites will be directly in front of a climbing area or boulder problem, so that people won't have to hike through someone's campsite to get to a climb.
Mr. Kavanaugh wants to hear your thoughts and comments on the proposed plan. Email is fine. You can email him at John_Kavanaugh@ca.blm.gov, and see the scoping announcement at
Scoping Proposal
I posted my thoughts previously. I'm going to write a scoping response in the next day or so and I'll post it here when I send it off. May 4, 2010
You tell an interesting story and one that I predicted would be told(NJC being WAY worse X # of years ago). However, in my mind, the relatively high level of gunshots/glass/yahoos/etc. ten years ago doesn't justify the current amount. I hear you on not wanting another J-tree National Parking Lot and I definitely have my own hideaway for camping.
I'm not totally convinced that an official BLM CG is the answer and am open to alternative options for NJC revitalization before I chip in my two cents to the BLM. May 4, 2010
The BLM hopes to have a continuous host, at least during the main season (Sept-May). The host will have no enforcement powers. Since there are very few rules, there are very few that someone could enforce anyway - shooting, paintball, off-roading, and partying are not prohibited. There are no quiet hours. The hosts' duties will be up to the hosts. They may choose to greet every new arrival, or keep a low profile.
One of the White Face sites was sited in such a way that climbers would have to hike through the site in order to climb there. We tried to convince Mr. Kavanaugh to move this site around the corner on the theory that if there was a table there, there would always be someone camping there; whereas if the table was around the corner, there might not always be someone camped there. If you write a scoping letter, you might mention this. The other sites are away from climbing and bouldering and are where people usually camp.
Frankly, this seems to be a done deal. The BLM has already ordered the materials and scheduled the bulldozers for May 17, the day after the comment period ends. The Environmental Assessment, something that the USFS told us would take months and require a donation of $50k for Williamson, is going to be done on the evening of the 16th, and the bulldozers roll Monday morning.
More worrisome is that this whole area is being considered as a possible site for windfarms and solar arrays. A windfarm is being proposed just south, atop Granite Mountain. This is a much more serious threat to the entire area. May 9, 2010
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Hi, John:
Thanks for coming out to meet us. I appreciate you going out of your way to get our input.
After thinking about it for quite a while, and talking to other climbers, my comments on the plans are these:
Sawtooth Canyon is a unique area in the Mojave desert. In all the wandering around that I've done, there is no other place with that kind of rock that's big enough to climb, and very few other places with any climbable rock at all. I'd prefer to see no more development there whatsoever. I concede that the toilet and fences have cut back on the Wild West attitude out there, and have improved the area, though it's difficult to divorce that from the fact that there are more climbers out there. Climbers tend to develop a personal relationship with an area that they come back to repeatedly. A climber who is coming out every weekend tends to litter less and tend better an area, perhaps moreso than a off-roader or a partier who is only going to be at the area once a year, or less.
I'd like to see the place remain as it is. Not exactly untouched by human hands, but pretty much just roads and desert.
That said, if there are to be picnic tables and toilets, I would request that Camp 1 be moved around the corner to the northeast, so it doesn't sit right in front of a popular climbing area. If there is a picnic table there, there will always be someone camped there, and climbers will have to go through that site to get to the climbs. If it's around the corner, more people will camp there, and not in front of the White Face.
As you know, the proposed toilet sits in or very near a seasonal wash.
Campsites 6, 7, and 8 sit in a grassy area that is currently largely untouched; what off-road trails are there are returning to nature. It's a mixed bag. The planned development there would be out of sight, but would also impact an area that is currently untouched by the off-road vehicles.
Again, thanks for your time. I hope you will let us know of any further development planned for this area.
Regards,
Brent May 14, 2010
Ventura, CA
Whats the current status on the CG construction at NJC? And is there anything to the rumors about plans for wind/solar farms in the area?
Is the area closed for the construction? If so, when might it re-open?
davi. Sep 19, 2010
NWS point forecast for New Jack City Feb 27, 2012
San Diego
New Jack is great climbing! The roads are nice now and the bathrooms and brand new. I didn't pay for camping so I guess it was free... but the camp hosts are definetly sub-par as far as I am concerned as they are were extremely rude. Dec 11, 2012
Foothill Ranch, CA
A much more enjoyable sleeping experience than J-Tree's hidden valley or jumbo rocks campgrounds by far. Mar 4, 2013
Speed bumps in the desert! I've never seen such a ridiculous thing.
You can look forward to raptor closures, sensitive area closures, wildlife closures, primitive art closures, limits on fixed anchors, and entrance fees. Eventually they'll shut the place down to new routes, and sometime after that, they'll start looking for reasons to restrict climbing entirely. They'll put gates across the road, and next time there's a budget cut, the whole area will be closed.
Williamson is your guide here. Be careful what you wish for, those who wanted more BLM presence. It's easy to pick up broken glass. It's not so easy to get rid of the managers once they get their hands on an area.
Me, I'm never telling anyone about new climbing areas ever again. Mar 26, 2013
Joshua Tree
Best I can tell, the host is no problem at all. What I found most offensive was both visits was the BLASTING of peoples music and littering of cigarette butts. I couldn't do much about the music other than sigh but the butts....those I picked up along with other wrappers, no less than 6 tape-ends from ropes and other garbage.
Maybe we should look at our own presence and impact before bitching about the Tool.
Just sayin'. Mar 30, 2013
Redlands, CA
CA
Bend, OR
Small Town, USA
Check out my post in the forums!
mountainproject.com/v/new-j…
You can order through my site or Amazon (fluctuating stock).
Http://newjackcityguide.com
amzn.com/069258918X Mar 11, 2016
For instance the forecast/report says that it rained 0.2" in the last day or so and it's raining more now but supposed to stop around noon. Would it be fine to climb tomorrow? Jan 13, 2017
Chosstown, USA
NJC is choss... There are sections of solid stone, but for the most part almost every NJC climb has a chossy element. Wet choss definitely breaks more readily. Treat it like sandstone and dry it out before you try it out. Jan 22, 2017
CA
West Hills, CA
Long Beach, CA
Also, if there's any bee experts out there reading this do you know if bee's go dormant or migrate elsewhere during the colder months? I've been camping at Sawtooth Canyon for years now and we've never had this issue before.
Thank you! Nov 7, 2017
Long Beach, CA
Small Town, USA